Prompt #1: Gender Roles
There are many ways that gender roles have changed and evolved in the last 50 years, let alone the past 200, yet we still find some conventions of traditional men and women’s roles still lingering in society today. The goal of this post will be to share a few of my ideas and experiences in relation to women’s roles as presented in Jane Austen’s “Northanger Abbey” and note the gender roles that existed back then as opposed to now, and what (if any) still linger today.
The setting of “Northanger Abbey” is in the community of Bath, a relatively rich offshoot of British society, in which both the men and the women indulge themselves in the finer things in life: clothing, jewelry, social gatherings, and the like. The main character, Catherine Morland, finds herself in the care of her family friends the Allens. In one of the first scenes of the book, Catherine finds herself at a social Ball, in which many traditional men and women’s roles are exhibited. For example, Catherine must be introduced to people she has not met before (especially men) by a previous acquaintance of that party. Only the men are permitted to ask the woman to dance, and only then was that allowed if again, they were introduced by a mutual third party. This is a norm that has, for the most part, been completely done away with in American culture (I say American culture because it is what I am most familiar with). When I go out on the weekends, even to more formal events, it is completely common for a girl to introduce themselves to me or one of my male friends, and to start a friendship or eventually romantic involvement resulting from that. Furthermore, a woman can go out to the bar or social event alone without a chaperone, and she would never be looked down upon.
The second way gender roles (and the discrimination of women) become apparent in Northanger Abbey is the gossip and bad reputations of women that are a result of talking to too many men at once. This is the case with Isabella Thorpe, who was deemed an unfit candidate for marriage because of her previous actions. Although this is an issue that I would like to say has completely been done away with, there are definitely lingering prejudices that surround this topic. I believe that women have more liberty today than 200 years ago with who they see and why they see them without being completely shunned out of society, I would also argue that men and women are still held to different standards in the dating/romantic involvement world. The classic argument is that men who see a lot of women are considered studs while women who do the same are shamed by men. I still see this a lot today, and there is still a long way to go for complete equality in gender roles, especially in the dating/ social world.
Brit Lit 2020 